It is a problem in the field of wireless communications to manage the wireless services provided by an aircraft network to passengers who are located in the aircraft as they roam among cell sites in the non-terrestrial cellular communication network. The aircraft network serves a plurality of subscribers, yet must, under present regulations, prohibit the use of the aircraft network for voice communications. The management of this network to enable aircraft-based subscribers to initiate data communications, but not voice communications, has yet to be addressed in existing wireless networks.
In the field of terrestrial cellular communications, it is common for a wireless subscriber to a initiate a one-to-one communication connection, which comprises a channel on the serving cell site, to access a desired communication service. These communication services can be traditional voice communications, data communications, or voice communications using a data connection via a VoIP communication connection. The VoIP communication connection is processed as a data communication connection by the terrestrial cellular network and is routed to a data network, such as the Internet. All of these communication connections are processed in terrestrial cellular communications without regard for the content or nature of the data that is conveyed.
When wireless subscribers enter the non-terrestrial cellular communication network (that is, they fly in an aircraft as passengers), they encounter a unique environment that is regulated by different rules than the terrestrial cellular network. In particular, airlines presently prohibit the use of wireless devices onboard an aircraft in flight to host voice communications. The problem with this directive is that traditional cell phones and the more advanced wireless devices and laptop computers are capable of voice communications as well as data communications. In addition, the data communication capabilities of the wireless devices can be utilized to access a data communication network that hosts VoIP communication services, thereby enabling the passenger to thwart the rules by using a data communication connection for voice calls. Furthermore, aircraft passengers using wireless devices (such as 802.11 capable devices) can connect to the aircraft network and establish a Virtual Private Network tunnel back to their corporate network, which may use encryption of the content of the data communications. At this point, the aircraft network has little to no visibility into the encrypted client application space; thus, the wireless device used by the aircraft passenger can utilize a VoIP service to host a voice call—which is not authorized.